Peter Michael Falk was born in
New York
City on September 16,
1927 and raised in
Ossining, New
York.When he was twelve years old he
made his first stage appearance in a production of
The Pirates of
Penzance at CampHigh
Point in upstate
New
York.

After graduating from
OssiningHigh
School, where he was a star athlete
and president of his class, Falk served as a cook in the Merchant Marine,
then studied at HamiltonCollege in
Clinton, New
York, where he completed his work for a
B.A. degree in political science at the
NewSchool for Social Research in
1951.He earned a Masters
degree in public administration at SyracuseUniversity in 1953.After applying unsuccessfully for
a job with the Central Intelligence Agency, he became a management analyst
with the Connecticut State Budget Bureau, in
Hartford.In his spare time he acted with
the Mark Twain Maskers in Hartford and studied at the White Barn
Theatre in Westport, and for the first time began
to consider the possibility of becoming a professional actor.In 1956 at the age of 29 he left
his job with the Budget Bureau, moved to Greenwich
Village in
New
York, and declared himself an
actor.

In
New
York he made his professional debut
Off Broadway in Moliere’s
Don Juan at
the Fourth Street Theatre on January
3, 1956, and
the following season he was in the Circle in the Square’s highly
successful revival of The
Iceman Cometh with Jason Robards.For the next three years Falk was
never out of work, bouncing from one Off-Broadway theatre to another.

Although Falk was enjoying success onstage, a theatrical agent
advised him not to expect much work in motion pictures because of his
glass eye.Surgeons had
removed his right eye, along with a malignant tumor, when he was three
years old.

In
1960 Falk left New
York and
moved to Hollywood
where he landed his first movie,
Murder
Incorporated, and was nominated for an Oscar.On a roll, he was nominated that
same year for an Emmy playing a drug addict in
The Law and Mr. Jones.Frank Capra’s
A Pocketful of
Miracles with Bette Davis and Glenn Ford was Falk’s second
feature in 1961 and with it, his second Oscar nomination.Also that year he got a second
Emmy nomination in The Dick Powell Playhouse’s presentation of
The Price ofTomatoes -- and
this time took home the prize.

After rejecting
several other television series offers, in 1965 Falk undertook
The Trials of
O’Brien, a
weekly one-hour comedy whodunit that ran to low ratings and complaints
from the American Bar Association, but also to high critical praise.The producer of the show, Richard
Alan Simmons, called Falk a “comedic genius.”

But it was as the inimitable
character of Lt. Columbo that the actor started being a serious collector
of the Emmy statuettes, picking up a total of four for the
Lieutenant.What started out
as a TV movie in 1968, Prescription:Murder,
was followed in 1971 with another,
Ransom For A Dead
Man.They resulted in a series with
three alternating 90-minute shows,
TheNBC Mystery
Wheel,
one of which was called Columbo.Columbo quickly
climbed to the top five in the Nielson Ratings.Though the series ended in 1977,
it began shooting again in 1988 in the format of 2-hour TV movies and
continues to this day.

Also in 1971 Falk
returned to Broadway for Neil Simon’s play,
The Prisoner of
SecondAvenue, directed
by Mike Nichols, and the creative love affair with Neil Simon
continued with three starring roles in the films
Murder by Death
with Peter Sellers, The
Cheap Detective with Stockard Channing, and
The Sunshine Boys
with Woody Allen.He also
toured in David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play
Glengarry Glen Ross
with Joe Mantegna in 1986.

Falk’s film career includes
three with his close friend, the late John Cassavetes:A Woman Under The
Influence with Gena Rowlands,
Husbands with
Cassavetes and their mutual friend Ben Gazzara, and
Mikey and Nicky
teaming up with Cassavetes, written and directed by Elaine May.Falk’s flair for comedy is most
evident in his personal favorite
The In-Laws with
Alan Arkin, directed by Arthur Hiller.In the fantasy
The Princess
Bride, Falk plays the beloved grandfather, directed by Rob
Reiner.Falk’s heavenly
performance in Wings of
Desire, playing an ex-angel, didn’t need a miracle for Wim
Wenders’ “Best Director” award in Cannes in 1987.Falk has been praised for his work
in many films including Cookie in 1989,
Tune In
Tomorrow in 1990,
Faraway, So
Close! in 1993,
Roommates in
1994, and Vig
in 1998.

Falk returned to the stage in
spring 1998 to star in Arthur Miller’s new play
Mr. Peter’s
Connections at the Signature Theatre in
New
York, which sold out for the entire
run within two weeks of announcement.In the summer of 1999 Peter gave a
heartfelt performance in the film
A Storm in Summer
directed by veteran filmmaker Robert Wise and written by master author Rod
Serling.Later in autumn of
1999 Falk appeared in Joe Mantegna’s directorial debut,
Lakeboat,
which also starred Joe Mantegna, Andy Garcia, John Turturo, and George
Wendt.In the new millennium
Falk appears in the Artisan mobster drama
Made which stars
Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, and Sean”Puffy” Combs.In spring of 2000 Falk
starred on the Los
Angeles stage, in a sold-out
performance opposite Jason Alexander in the suspenseful, dramatic, and
often comedic play Defiled at the
Geffen Playhouse.

In Disney’s 2001
Corky Romano he
played opposite Saturday Night
Live star Chris Kattan.Then he traveled to New
Zealand to star in the two-part
miniseries adaptation of the classic
The Lost World
with Bob Hoskins for the BBC and A&E Networks.Falk ended the year in
A Town Without
Christmas starring with Patricia Heaton playing an angel in
CBS’s highest rated movie of 2001.In 2002 Falk starred in the feature
Undisputed
directed by Walter Hill with Wesley Snipes and Ving Rhames.

In January 2003 the
69thColumbo episode,
"Columbo Likes The
Nightlife,"
aired on ABC.In April the
2003 5th Annual Method Fest Independent Film Festival honored
him with the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.In
Wilder Days, a
TNT/Johnson & Johnson
Spotlight Presentation film, which aired in October 2003, Peter played
father to Tim Daly and grandfather to Josh Hutcherson on a road trip
examining the emotions among three generations of males.Then Falk reprised his role of an
angel, from 2001’s highly rated CBS movie, A Town Without
Christmas, co-starring with Valerie Bertinelli in
Finding John
Christmas which aired in November
2003.

During 2003/2004 Peter provided
the voice of Don Brizzi in Sharktale with many
notable co-stars.In April,
2004, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual David Di
Donatello Awards in Italy (equivalent to our Academy
Awards).He starred in
Checking Out in June, 2004, a movie version of the
Tony award-winning play of the 70s.Falk played the leading character, a family patriarch who calls his
family together to celebrate his decision to "check out" while he was
still healthy and happy.

Also in 2004 he
played the angel, Max, for the third time for producer Daniel Blatt's CBS
Christmas movie, When Angels Come to Town.He then rounded out the year with
The Thing About My Folks, playing father to Paul
Reiser.Although Reiser wrote
the movie about his own dad, he always pictured Falk in the role because
he spent many hours watching his dad enjoy Columbo on
TV.

In early 2005
Peter starred in Retirement along with George
Segal and Rip Torn.At this
time the 70thColumbo MOW is currently in
development.

Beyond his busy schedule as an
actor, Falk is an artist; he prefers drawing with charcoal pencil, but
lately is enjoying experimenting with watercolors.A passion for drawing was sparked
years ago when he began sketching as a way to pass time between scenes
while filming on location.Aside from numerous gallery shows and exhibits of his art,
including a 2004 exhibition at Bulgari’s in Rome, Peter shares several of his
drawings on this website, PeterFalk.com.

Peter and
Shera Danese have been married for over 25 years and live in Beverly
Hills.He and first wife Alice Mayo have
two daughters, Catherine who is married with two children and Jackie who
received her Masters degree in Psychology.